The Better Man
by MacsJeep
Summary: MacGyver finds a strange artefact whilst on a dig with Prof Atticus, but when the huge stone circle is taken back to Phoenix, a strange adventure begins that sees him meet a very familiar face. Can Mac and SG-1 discover what has happened, and fix it? And will they be able to defend themselves when an old enemy decides to join them through the gate..?
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: I wrote this before starting the MacGyver Virtual Season with Rocket, and I thought it might be nice to share it here. While I have spellchecked the VS is U.S. format, I am a Brit, and you will find the spelling of this story reflects that. Thanks MJ._

 ** _Giza, Egypt_**

 ** _West Bank of the Nile_**

 ** _1994_**

The wind seemed to come from nowhere, whipping swirls of sand across the landscape like tiny twisters. It didn't care there were men here trying to work, or then again, given their objective, maybe it did.

Some locals hated the westerners disturbing their ancient, sacred places. Perhaps the wind felt the same.

Right now, Angus MacGyver didn't much care what the blasting current of air felt or didn't, he simply wanted his old professor to take a breath and stop shouting over the noise of the dang thing.

Atticus was a genius when it came to archaeology, a bold, loud and very rotund man who was larger than life, with a set of vocal chords to match.

Months earlier he'd convinced MacGyver to help him search for Atlantis, and now somehow, he'd talked the adventurer into yet another caper – which Mac was regretting in earnest.

"Just one more night, MacGyver, I tell you there's something here the Egyptians wanted to be kept well hidden. It has to be treasure of untold value!" Atticus's arms splayed out and his large beard twitched in anticipation.

Over the top as a description was not an exaggeration in his case.

Mac sighed and nodded. It was far easier that way when the professor got a bee in his bonnet.

And truth be told, there _was_ something strange about this dig – but not because Mac thought there was going to be treasure here, at least not the golden variety.

A turban clad worker saved MacGyver from further onslaught from the professor's tonsils.

"Mr. Atticus, Sir, come, look, see!"

The man was excited, his grin revealing several rotten and broken teeth.

"See, I told you, MacGyver!"

Atticus didn't wait for his old student to try to answer, but scurried after the dust-covered worker.

After just a few paces the man dropped to his knees where he'd been carefully clearing sand and ran a hand over something like he had found the lost ark.

Atticus followed his lead and for once in his life, his booming voice didn't have one word to say.

Not one.

That fact alone intrigued Mac enough to join the pair and squint through the sandstorm at what had been found.

Only a small section of the thing was visible, a chevron shaped piece of dark grey material adorned with symbols. But what was it? Metal or some kind of stone?

Instantly drawn to the thing, just as Atticus had been, MacGyver dropped to his knees and began to join the other two men in frantically digging.

Fifteen minutes later, they had revealed what appeared to be half of a huge circle that had been buried in the ground since the time of the pharaohs.

As they'd dug away the sand, they'd discovered more of the strange chevron shapes on the ring, and yet more symbols and glyphs.

It had obviously been hidden on purpose, and yet there was nothing here to suggest why. It wasn't a treasure that belonged to a pharaoh, or it would have been protected inside his tomb. It wasn't gold, or any other precious metal, and it didn't appear to be anything to do with worship or it would have been in the remains of a temple.

MacGyver stepped back from the thing and rubbed at his neck, wiping away sweat with the back of his hand. "Well…you got me," he admitted.

"My boy, in all my years in archaeology, I have never seen the likes of it before." Atticus was almost whispering. Was that reverence in his toned down voice?

Another worker appeared, this time from a separate section of the dig. He was taller, more confident than the first man. "Sir, we have found another…item." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "Perhaps these things would be better off left buried Mr. Atticus. There are local superstitions…"

Finally, Atticus found his bellowing voice again, and he slapped the worker on the back jovially, reminding Mac of an over-zealous department store Santa. "Nonsense, nonsense, let me see what you've found! I have a feeling we're making history today!"

Mac suddenly had the inexplicable feeling that they were too, but not the kind the professor was thinking of.

This thing was huge. At a guess, without even revealing the rest, Mac estimated it was around fifteen feet wide and over twenty tonnes in weight.

It was no ordinary artifact, and nothing like it had ever been seen before, of that he was sure.

Maybe the locals were right, and it was better left hidden in the bowels of the desert.

He shook himself. Since when had he ever thought that knowledge should be left buried? He was a thinker, a man who believed that history and knowledge should be shared and used to benefit mankind.

And yet, the thought remained as he jogged over to where the professor was now babbling excitedly. _We shouldn't uncover this…_

"MacGyver!" The professor was rubbing his hands together as if he'd won the lottery. Maybe in his head, he had, from an archeological standpoint. "Look! What do you make of it?"

The Egyptian workforce had removed a massive stone slab some six feet below the surface of the desert to reveal the top of yet another round object.

The thing seemed to have two circular sections made up of what could only be called keys. Each key had a symbol like the ones on the larger artefact.

At the center of the new find was a large red stone.

Intrigued, Mac slid carefully down into the hole that had been dug and straddled the object.

Sand billowed around him as the wind once again whipped up a small storm, but he ignored it, scooping away the desert in huge handfuls to try and reveal more of the relic.

He had an idea, and it was a scary one.

Once enough sand had been cleared from the left side of the thing, Mac reached into his pocket and tugged out his knife. Then, slowly, and oh so very carefully, he began to work on the artefact, picking away at a seam he'd discovered until finally he'd gained access to a very small part of it.

He blinked, took another look to convince himself, and then sat back, his suspicions confirmed.

"What is it, MacGyver? Don't keep us in suspense!" Atticus was bellowing again, a large grin on his face that even his beard couldn't hide.

But that grin would be very, very short lived.

"Professor, I think we better call the Phoenix Foundation. We're going to need some help on this one…"

Atticus huffed. "Don't be ridiculous! The London museum will fund us once they see what we've discovered! These artefacts are the find of the century! They're pieces of history the likes we've never seen before!"

Mac shook his head. "That's just my point, professor, these _aren't_ pieces of history. They're pieces of _technology…"_

 ** _PX97-554_**

 ** _1999_**

The sky was black and the air filled with the stench of ozone. Lighting blazed from the heavens, streaking to the ground in a deadly cascade of light.

And with it all, came rain so heavy it pelted off the ground like a bouncing wall of water.

Daniel Jackson didn't notice the weather. He was simply running as if his life depended on it – because today, it did – and so did the lives of his SG-1 team mates.

The unit, along with SG-3 had been on a standard recon mission of a seemingly harmless planet, when they'd discovered it was actually one giant lab used by the local system lord.

The goa'uld in question had decided his Jaffa were no longer efficient and had begun to "improve" them with all kinds of genetic and technological enhancements.

Right now, SG-1 was feeling the brunt of those enhancements as they tried to get back to the stargate. Most of SG-3 had been lost already when they'd walked into an ambush.

But then, it wasn't hard to get trapped when your enemy had some kind of cloaking capability.

Daniel stumbled as his foot caught in an animal hole, and he almost lost his glasses. Not that he could see through them with the pounding rain anyway.

He picked himself up and pushed on, knowing the rest of the team was behind him, protecting him so that he could dial home and get them through the portal.

A staff blast whizzed past his head as he finally reached the DHD and threw his body to safety behind it.

From somewhere behind, he heard Jack O'Neill's voice yelling over the constant thrum of the electric storm above. "Right about now would be a good time, Daniel!"

Jackson knew they had minutes to live at best, and began to work on the DHD.

Except, something was wrong.

As he touched each symbol, instead of lighting up permanently, they flickered and shimmered, reminding him of the power surges back home when the local power station had outages.

 _Not now. Not now!_

Daniel felt O'Neill join him on the stone podium, but didn't look up at the officer.

He couldn't, he had to make the device work, nothing else mattered.

Rain water streaked from his fingers as he pressed the keys again, a strange blue light dancing over them like an extra, alien current was flowing through the device.

"For cryin' out loud, NOW, Daniel!" Jack was firing indiscriminately at the forest behind them, and somewhere to either side Daniel knew Carter and Teal'c were doing the same.

But still the Jaffa blasts continued, even though there wasn't an enemy in sight.

Shells littered the ground at both men's feet, and O'Neill was forced to reload at least three times in just seconds.

Finally Daniel looked up, pushing his soaked glasses up his nose, defeat in his stammering voice. "It's…it's um, not working…"

A thud to his left indicated Carter had joined them, rolling across the dais military style with her weapon still firing.

Click.

The captain's clip was empty.

Letting the gun drop to her side she focused on the DHD too while O'Neill and Teal'c continued their barrage.

"What's wrong with it?" The blonde was dialling as she spoke, but the symbols continued to flicker and deny any gate travel access.

Daniel shook his head. He didn't know. In fact, the only thing he was sure of was that they were going to die here in about twenty seconds.

He gave up working on the dialler and stared at O'Neill, realizing the officer had stopped firing altogether and was simply staring out at the forest.

Teal'c joined them, his usual stoic façade also transfixed by what was coming.

While Carter still toyed with the DHD, Daniel found his own eyes turning to the edge of woods.

And then he saw them.

Shimmering seven foot figures that were appearing from the trees as if by magic.

Their forms were translucent to begin with, and as they moved forwards they seemed to solidify more until their bodies glowed with a blue static charge that streamed over their armour.

They wore the full Jaffa helmet, obscuring their faces, save for their leader, whose eyes flickered with the same tinge of cobalt.

"I have heard of such a goa'uld cloaking device," Teal'c offered helpfully. "However, these devices also appear to render our weapons useless."

O'Neill looked down at the empty shells at his feet. "You don't say," he retorted sarcastically.

The lead Jaffa let off a burst from his staff weapon, the blast landing just short of the stargate and making the earth move as if there had been a mini quake.

Sods of burnt soil and flames spiralled through the air, joining the storm's effects to make it seem like this world was coming to an end.

Even the staff weapons had been improved.

"Sweet," Jack snarked, "Remind me to add one of those to my Christmas list."

Teal'c raised a brow. "It is said their strength and hand to hand combat skills are also superior to ordinary Jaffa."

Jack looked at him as another blast tore into the ground, this time behind them, making the gate quiver, but he didn't flinch. "Great, sugar coat it why don'tcha?"

The Jaffa remained silent, his expression suggesting he was trying to decipher the comment.

Behind them, Carter finally yelped. "I've got it!" and before she could say more the portal gushed open with a whoosh of exploding energy, sending out a wave that oozed into the surroundings and was then sucked back again as the wormhole stabilized.

The DHD crackled and hissed as tendrils of blue danced across its keys, but all the correct symbols for earth were now staying alight, keeping the doorway to earth open.

Another staff blast hit dangerously close to the dialler, and it trembled and shivered with the tremor from the explosion.

Jack rammed in another clip and returned fire. It was futile, really, but Daniel guessed it made the Colonel at least _feel_ like he was giving them cover.

Teal'c followed suit with his own staff weapon, but even that had no effect on his hostile brethren.

"C'mon!" Sam took a dive at the shimmering wormhole and was engulfed in its maw.

Above, lightning streaked from the sky, forking and snaking its way to the planet's surface. And for a second, Daniel could have sworn the actual gateway glowed the same blue as the dialler.

Then, the trick of light was gone, and he found himself following the captain into the stream of energy.

Jack O'Neill couldn't actually remember, diving into the stargate. One minute he was staring into the malevolent eyes of the lead Jaffa, the next he was rolling across a very cold concrete floor and landing with his butt in the air next to Teal'c.

At first it didn't hit home that he hadn't landed on the very familiar ramp in the gate room.

In fact, it didn't hit home that he wasn't _in_ the gate room at all for at least ten seconds.

When he finally did come to his senses, he realized that he was sitting on the floor in front of a plump, rather bald man that instantly reminded him of General George Hammond.

"Mac, what on earth just happened?"

The man was looking around the room as if he was searching for someone, and he seemed to completely ignore the fact that O'Neill was sitting at his feet.

Jack scrambled up, only realizing once he was face to face with the man that he was blind.

Behind the blind man, emblazoned on the wall was a logo and some lettering. It read _Phoenix Foundation Research 3_ and had some kind of white bird in flight for the emblem.

The Colonel sighed. "I'm guessing we're not in Kansas anymore, kids." He turned then, looking for the rest of the team.

They were all behind him, staring pointedly at something or someone on the far side of the room.

The gate, or rather "a" gate was behind them all, set in a jury-rigged frame and looking rather sorry for itself.

Jack ignored it, turning to follow the gaze of his friends.

"You gotta be kidding me…"

Standing by the security door to the room was a man of Jack's height and build. He wore a rather bright shirt that the Colonel wouldn't have been seen dead in, and his hair was what could only be described as one way out of control mullet.

It was lighter than the Colonel's too, and yet…

And yet somehow, Colonel Jack O'Neill was staring at his own face – not just someone who looked alike or had similar features, no he was staring into the face of someone who shouldn't exist.

And it bothered him more than facing down a whole army of enhanced Jaffa and their weapons.


	2. Chapter 2

It had taken all of Mac's willpower to convince Atticus to allow "the ring" to be taken back to the Phoenix Foundation's research facility no 3 in the Angeles National Forest.

At the time, it had made sense that the strange artifact be studied somewhere before any governments got their hands on it.

Now, as a team of four soldiers stared him down after stepping from its flickering maw, Mac was wondering just what he'd let himself in for.

It looked like the military already had a handle on the thing, maybe they were even here to take it.

But even so, that didn't explain how they'd gotten here.

 _Did they really just step out of that thing?_

For a moment, he was so shocked at what had happened that he actually failed to notice that the lead soldier could have been his twin, save for clothes and a hair style.

"You gotta be kidding me…"

Realization seemed to have dawned on the soldier right about the same time it had Mac.

"MacGyver? Who's in here with us? I didn't give security access to anyone else." Pete Thornton broke the moment with his slightly worried plea. He was searching around the room frantically, trying to sense what his eyes could no longer tell him by sound alone.

Mac moved from the doorway to his friend's side, knowing what was happening must be spooking his friend, given Pete's blindness.

"It's okay, Pete. I _think_ …" He looked at his double, trying to rationalize what was going down, but despite normally being a thinker, he had no explanation save for that he might be dreaming.

And to be fair, that _had_ happened before.

 _Yeah, cowboys and knights, not doppelgangers dressed in combats!_

A soldier with glasses that reminded Mac of his alter ego Dexter Fillmore edged from the back of the newly arrived group. He seemed a little uncertain, and couldn't contain a small sneeze before speaking. "Um…my name is Daniel Jackson, and these are my friends Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter, and this is um…Teal'c. We err…"

"We'd like to know exactly where the hell we are, and who you guys are?" O'Neill butted in, finishing the sentence for his stammering cohort. His tone of voice said he was annoyed, rather than inquisitive.

"You're at one of the Phoenix Foundation's research facilities." Mac was careful just how much he gave away. "Name's MacGyver and this is Pete Thornton, Director of Operations around here. Now do you mind telling us how _you_ got in here, and why?"

Jackson spoke up again. He looked back at the ring. "We came through the stargate…but I'm guessing by the looks on your faces you don't know it by that name?"

 _Stargate…_

MacGyver let the word roll around in his head. He'd realized the symbols on the thing had pertained to constellations, but could this ancient relic actually be a gateway to the heavens?

Had the military already found one and been experimenting with it? Was that how these folks had got here?

"Me and my old college professor found the ring last month, in Giza on a dig. As far as we were aware, nothing like it had been discovered before. We brought it back here to be studied."

"Sir, there was only one stargate at Giza, and that was the one discovered in 1928…at least…" Jackson was speaking to the Colonel, but his eyes said his mind was elsewhere, deducing, de-crypting all the information it was taking in.

It seemed Samantha Carter was already thinking along the same lines. "At least, in _our_ reality," she offered, looking between MacGyver and O'Neill. "And that would also explain why…"

O'Neill winced. "Don't say it, Carter."

"Why you two look do alike," she finished anyway.

"We might _look_ alike," O'Neill countered, "But we don't share a last name. Face it, he's not me, and I'm not him, and we're _not_ through the looking glass."

"It was actually an inter-dimensional bridge like the quantum mirror we encountered…" Carter opened her mouth to continue correcting her superior, but Pete Thornton had had enough.

"I have no idea what is going on here, or what you people are talking about, but I think you owe some kind of explanation as to how you got in a secure facility, and more importantly _why?_ " Pete's tone said he was not going to take anything less than the truth, and lots of it. "I suggest we all go up to the conference room here and start again, one at a time."

Mac crossed his arms and looked at his alter ego. "You heard the man." He waited, expecting a sassy retort from the officer.

Instead, O'Neill nodded. "Explanations are fine by me." He finally let the weapon he was carrying hang looser in his grasp, relaxing his guard just a little.

Mac liked that. Although he'd have liked it a whole lot better if the group had given up their weapons altogether.

The foundation's facility no 3 was its newest build. So new, it hadn't even existed when MacGyver had quit working for them. Some areas were actually still not finished; including the conference room they were now all entering.

The long table and two rows of rather comfortable looking leather chairs were all in place, but two of the walls were still bare, and paint cans, brushes, and other decorating items lay on a sheet on the floor in the far corner.

Mac led Pete to the central chair that indicated he was in charge of this little chat, even if he probably didn't feel it.

Mac instinctively sat next to him on the right, with O'Neill on the left followed by the rest of SG-1.

"Okay, so where do we start?" O'Neill opened up the proceedings, fiddling with a pencil he'd found as he spoke, as if he'd much rather been in the middle of a fire fight than a discussion like this.

Mac noted the officer's impatience. And yet, he somehow couldn't help but already like the man - and not just because they looked alike.

This O'Neill appeared to be his opposite in every way. He obviously didn't mind being around firearms, he didn't seem to think before he acted, and he definitely had a level of sarcasm that beat Mac's into the ground.

But, underneath it all, there were alike, and Mac knew it. He'd always been a good judge of people, and he'd already gotten Jack O'Neill pegged.

Then again, if he'd been following Major Carter correctly back at the ring, or stargate, as it appeared to be called, then they should be alike, given that Carter's suggestion seemed to be that they were the same person, in two different realities.

Did Mac even believe in parallel universes?

He tried to fathom it all, how it could work, how two separate realities might meet, what the repercussions might be…

Daniel Jackson broke his train of thought. "I um, think we should start at the beginning, Jack."

Pete nodded. "Sounds logical to me…"

Carter cleared her throat. "Well, I guess I'm the most qualified to explain the gate, and what I think has happened." She looked at O'Neill for clearance, and he nodded.

"The thing you call the ring, is something we call a stargate. It's an alien technology we discovered in Giza in 1928. Our government, that is the U.S. government, spent time researching the gate, trying to figure out what it was and how to make it work. In 1994, we managed to open the gate and travel to an alien world. In the years since then, we've made hundreds of journeys to other planets. Today, we were trying to return from one such planet when we landed here by accident."

"I can't believe I spent years in the DXS and never knew about any of this." Pete looked incredulous. "In fact, I can't believe what I'm hearing! You're saying the U.S. military have used one of these things to _visit other planets_?"

Mac was way ahead of his old friend. He looked at Carter. "None of this has happened here, has it?"

Carter shook her head. "I don't think so. You see, when we tried to get home, there was an electrical storm the likes I've never seen before. I think there was a power surge that interfered with the wormhole the gate creates from world to world, and I think that wormhole then jumped…here, to a close but alternate reality."

The room fell silent.

Pete looked like he didn't believe a word.

MacGyver was pinching his nose with his eyes closed, as if assimilating all the details.

And Jack O'Neill, well Jack was looking like he needed a universal translator to explain what had just been explained.

"S'cuse me," the officer sighed. "But are you suggesting something like what happened when we got zapped off to that other earth gate in Antarctica?"

"Something like that, Sir, except we didn't just skip to another earth gate, we skipped to another earth gate in a parallel world." Sam explained.

"And there's more," Daniel Jackson added. "When we left, it was 1999, and if I'm reading that calendar correctly," he pointed to a chart on the table, "then we're now in 1994."

"Oh great, so we've jumped across gates, we've jumped across universes, and we've jumped across time. Anything else you want to throw at me?" O'Neill glanced at Mac. "Actually, don't answer that."

Pete couldn't accept it all. "This is _incredible._ " He turned his head to Mac, even though he couldn't see the trouble shooter's expression to tell what he was thinking. "MacGyver, is this even possible?"

Mac shrugged. "It's a little out of my field, Pete, but…I guess. I mean, how else could they have just appeared in the lab? And the constellations on that thing do seem to suggest travel to other planets." He shot a glance to O'Neill, knowing Pete didn't know about their other little revelation because he couldn't see their faces.

 _Could we be related? Could I actually be O'Neill in another reality? And how?_

This was one problem that couldn't be solved with a penknife and duct tape.

O'Neill posed the question for him. "Carter, if you and Daniel are right, and this is some kinda crazy quantum mirror thing all over again, then you're saying he's me, and I'm him?" The officer cringed as he said the words. "I mean, c'mon, we don't even share a name!"

Carter shrugged. "I can't explain that, Sir, but you're too much alike for this to be a coincidence."

O'Neill wasn't convinced. "Have you seen that shirt? And _the mullet_?"

Mac smiled, this Jack character was actually quite funny, and he did have to agree that while they looked alike, they didn't share a family name. "And I don't really do guns," he added, expecting it to horrify the officer more.

It did.

Jack groaned. "He can't be me, we don't share anything, not one dang thing."

"I hope you're right, Sir." Carter looked gravely serious. "Because there's something else."

"Now _what?_ " Both Jack and MacGyver chimed at the same time.

"If this really is another reality, and you two really are versions of the same person, then we could be looking at temporal entropic cascade failure."

"Gesundheit!" Jack snarked, meaning he hadn't a clue what the scientist had just said.

"It basically means that you can't have two versions of the same person in one reality." Carter simplified.

"Or else one of us gets sick?" Jack asked, his brow furrowing.

"Specifically you, Sir, as you're the version that doesn't belong here. If you stay too long, you could die."

"How long?"

Carter shrugged. "No one knows for sure. The effects are determined by just how close the two realities are. But I'd say two, maybe three days tops going from experience."

Silence fell on the room.

Eventually, Pete spoke up. "Listen, I can't even begin to understand half of what's been discussed here. But, if you're telling the truth, that means you're a U. unit that needs help, and I'm not about to deny that help. You have the full means of the Phoenix Foundation at your disposal to get you home."

Jack shook his head. "No disrespect, but it took the U.S. Air Force years to fathom out the gate and to get it to work. You guys don't have that kind of manpower and resources, and we only have what, three days?"

"Maybe we should call in the military from this universe?" Sam agreed.

Mac wasn't so sure. "Look guys, I don't know about your world, but governments around here tend to want to grab new technologies and exploit them. Especially when they find its alien technology. If we involve the military and tell them what this thing is, they're gonna be more interested in its potential than getting you home."

Jack rubbed at his brow as if he was getting a headache. "I hate to say it, but he's right. We all know what the government was like with the gate, and when we first brought Teal'c back with us. They didn't care about rights, or doing the right thing, just what worked for them."

"So where does that leave us?" Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose as if it would give him extra wisdom, but his expression suggested he wasn't feeling very wise at that point.

"Let the foundation help," Pete offered again.

"And what exactly do you have that can get us through the gate in just three days? Your gate isn't even set up, and we don't even know what caused the malfunction for sure." Jack stood up and walked over to the only window in the room, his hands behind his back officer style.

He pulled off his green ball cap and ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"We have MacGyver," Pete answered somewhat proudly. "And believe me, if anyone can jury rig that thing to work and figure out how to get you back home, he can."

O'Neill spun back around and stared at his double.

Everyone in the room fell silent again, waiting and wondering what decision the officer would make.

After a moment, he smirked. "Okay, I'll buy it. But can he ditch the flower power shirt? That thing is giving me a headache…"

A huge unspoken sense of relief seemed to wash across the room, and everyone in the group relaxed just a little.

All except Teal'c, who seemed perplexed by Jack's request. "I see nothing wrong with the shirt. I would be honoured to wear such a garment," he mumbled somberly.

MacGyver wasn't sure what he'd let himself in for. It was all well and good Pete singing his praises, but astrophysics wasn't exactly one of his specialities, and neither was alien technology.

So far, he'd spent forty minutes with Daniel and Major Carter just trying to get to grips with how the gate worked, and if they could dial it from this end.

It seemed Mac's universe did have one advantage over its counterpart, and that was that their gate had a DHD. That meant they wouldn't need to jury rig one via a computer system or try and dial the thing manually.

"So, you guys can just dial home once we figure out how to get enough power to this thing?" Mac asked, hoping the answer was yes.

It wasn't.

Carter shook her head. "I'm afraid it's not as simple as that. We have to recreate the storm exactly to try and cause the inter-dimensional bridge again. And we can't just dial home, either. Both your gate and ours share the same address."

"It would be like dialing your own phone number," Daniel pointed out from a previous experience. "So, we'd need to dial a different world, then dial home from there. Except, I'm not even sure we could recreate the storm on another world and that scenario work, either…"

"How about simply reversing the trip you made here?" MacGyver theorized. "We recreate the storm conditions, reverse the co ordinates back to the planet and universe you came from, then you could dial home from there."

"Except…" Jack had been listening and had now apparently decided he had some input. And it wasn't good. "We can't go back there because there's a whole army of Jaffa waiting to kick out butts."

Mac looked surprised and confused. "Jaffa?"

"Oops," Jack grimaced. "I guess we accidentally forgot to mention that there are bad guys called Goa'uld on some of the planets we visit, and their soldiers are called Jaffa. To cut a long and very fun story short, our world has enemies you guys haven't met yet."

"So if you go back where you came from, you'd be killed, and if we recreate the storm here and send you to another planet first, there's a good chance the inter-dimensional shift won't happen and you'd be stuck in this reality, just on another planet?" Mac put a hand to his head. "Sheesh, and I thought I was having a bad day."

Sam licked her lips. "Okay, so how about we focus on one problem at a time?" She looked at Mac. "If you can get the gate to full power, Daniel and I can be working on how to copy the storm's effects exactly. If we can get that far, then we can worry about how we're going to proceed next."

"Sounds good. I'll need to make some calls to get the amount of power we're going to need redirected to the labs. Pete, you up for giving me a hand with the phone?"

Pete nodded. "You bet."

"Um, there's just one thing?" Daniel glanced at Sam over his glasses and then the rest of the group. "Something I noticed when I was trying to dial out on PX97-554 was that the DHD had this strange blue glow dancing over the symbols, like um…some kind of weird charge. How are we even going to begin to recreate that, when we don't know what it was? How many storms do we know that create cobalt blue energy like that?"

Mac wasn't about to give in at the first hurdle. "We search for types of energy that give off a blue aura?"

"Oh joy, Google to the rescue." Jack was playing with the pencil again, suggesting the tech talk was getting to him.

Mac was just as confused. "Google?"

"I don't think it actually exists yet, Sir…" Sam intervened.

Jack rolled his eyes and opened his mouth, obviously intent on a sarcastic reply. Instead, he snapped his mouth shut again as the room began to suddenly shake. He looked pointedly at MacGyver. "You guys expecting an earthquake?"

Sam's eyes widened. "Sir, the gate in this reality has no dampers to stop the vibrations when it opens!"

"Aww crap!" Jack was on his feet in a second and heading for the door, rifle slung ready over his shoulder. Cap back firmly on his head.

Mac was close behind as were the rest of SG-1.

As they reached the stairs that overlooked the lab, they all stopped dead.

The stargate had three chevrons already locked into place, with more following as they watched, transfixed.

Beneath them, the stairs moved with the grumbling of the huge circle.

"This gate doesn't have an iris!" Jack's face contorted as he realized what was happening.

"Those Jaffayou mentioned, they're coming through, right?" Mac scowled. "Can't we shut it down from this side?"

Daniel shook his head. "Not once a wormhole has been established their end."

Jack checked the clip in his rifle, then checked his sidearm. "Time for plan B, kids. We might not belong in this reality, but we're sure gonna try and defend it." He looked at Daniel and Carter. "You guys take the left, Teal'c and me will take the right."

"But, Sir, our weapons are useless against their new cloaks," Carter looked helplessly on as the gate locked and the wormhole burst from the giant ring's center.

Jack nodded. "I know that, but you got any better ideas?" He flicked off his safety and jogged down the remaining steps with Teal'c following in his wake.

There were several crates with other artifacts from the dig in, and O'Neill took position behind the two largest.

Mac watched from the stairs for a second, taking note of who was positioned where in relation to the gate, and the bad guys.

His eyes narrowed and he slid lithely down the rest of the steps.

Jack noticed. "Are you nuts?" He took out his forty-five and offered it up. "Here at least you can feel like you're defending yourself."

"I won't need it." Mac shook his head and continued dashing across the lab until he vanished behind more crates.

O'Neill was tempted to comment, but his train of thought was suddenly taken by the swishing sound of three figures walking through the ebbing wormhole.

It was the lead Jaffa and two of his cohorts.

For the moment, they weren't invisible, but the two minions still wore their headgear.

Around them, the strange blue static charge flickered and sparked as they entered from the other reality.

The first prime looked around, apparently intrigued that he wasn't in Stargate Command.

He raised a hand and his companions began to sweep the room.

It was only a matter of time before SG-1 was discovered.

And then, then all hell broke loose.

O'Neill moved first, stepping from behind his cover just far enough to let off a burst of shells from his weapon. They bounced helplessly off the cloaks of his enemy, but in turn kept the Jaffa distracted enough not to notice where MacGyver was.

Teal'c joined in the fray, trying his hand with his staff weapon, but that too simply made an aura appear around the Jaffa as the energy dissipated.

The Jaffa, in turn, returned fire from their improved staffs, causing sections of the phoenix lab's walls to disintegrate into powder.

Another blast hit home close to the crate Carter was using to dodge behind, and that too was turned to blackened hot ash.

The major dived for new cover and narrowly missed incoming from another shot.

Daniel grabbed her by the utility vest and yanked her to safety just as the wall next to them exploded in a pile of rubble, taking out the foundation's computer network with it.

"Are they trying to blast there way out?" Daniel asked the major as she emptied a clip at the advancing Jaffa.

"I don't know," she offered breathlessly. "Maybe…"

A new noise broke any further conjecture.

It even stopped the Jaffa and their leader in their tracks.

It was a metallic screeching like fingernails down a blackboard, and it was coming from the far lab wall – the wall that in fact was more of a gigantic door similar to what you'd find on an aircraft hanger or movie studio.

And this door was slowly, grudgingly opening.

The first prime's eyes locked on to the new exit, and he appeared to survey the outside world, deciding if he should take his men straight out, or bother to exterminate O'Neill and his crew first.

After a second, he seemingly chose the former.

With one word and a hand gesture, the two Jaffa suddenly faded, their forms shimmering and fluctuating for just a heartbeat before melting into nothing at all as their cloaks invisibility option became active and they exited the lab.

The lead Jaffa looked back at SG-1, smirked, then activated his own cloak, disappearing into the Angeles forest sun as bullets bounced off of him and landed spent on the ground.

O'Neill appeared from his cover, his annoyed face returning with a vengeance. "Well, that went well." He sighed. "Now they're out in the open and have access to this reality. And it won't know what's hit it."

MacGyver appeared from nowhere. "They won't get the chance," he intervened. "We can stop them before they reach any sign of civilization."

Jack grimaced. "Ya think? 'Cause from where I was just standing, we can't stop them doing squat, and now you've let them out the building!"

"Um…I think they would have blasted their way out pretty quickly, Jack." Daniel offered as he stowed his sidearm.

"And killed you along with any chance this reality has," Mac concluded. "By letting them out, I diffused the situation and we all live to fight another day. I know this area like the back of my hand; I used to take survival classes for the foundation here. I can find them again, trust me."

Jack scowled. " _Fight_ another day?" He asked somewhat sarcastically. "You won't even use a gun to defend yourself, how the heck are we going to stop three super Jaffa with you leading us into the woods?"

Mac ignored the jibe and started jogging back up the now crumbling staircase. "Quickly, I hope," he answered. "I have a hockey game to watch later…" And with that he vanished into the upper corridor near the conference room.

Jack's mouth opened, but he apparently had no suitable retort. He turned, focusing on the rest of SG-1. "Okay, if we're doing this, I'll take Teal'c with me and…uh, _him_. Major Carter, you and Daniel stay here and focus on getting us home. If we're not back in twenty-four hours, and you can get outta here, go. If not, destroy the gate so no more of those things can get through."

Carter nodded. "Yes, Sir but…"

"No buts."

Mac reappeared as the Colonel finished giving his orders. He had a backpack in his right hand, and a can of paint in the other. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he began storing the can in the pack, along with another he'd apparently already secured.

"Great," Jack teased. "We're going to decorate them to death."

Mac smirked, almost cryptically. "Something like that," he teased back. "But for now, let's get on their trail." He grabbed his brown leather jacket from where it amazingly still dangled on a hook, despite all the carnage that had gone down. And then pulled the pack over his shoulders and headed for the open hanger door.

Jack and Teal'c followed, only pausing, weapons quickly drawn into a tactical pose when a figure appeared outside the exit.

"Don't shoot, don't shoot!" The man wore a security uniform and looked positively terrified.

Mac waved for O'Neill and Teal'c to stand down. "Relax, it's just Eric. He's gatehouse security at weekends."

Eric looked thankful that he hadn't been shot and nodded towards what was left of his booth. "You won't believe what just happened, Sir. I'm afraid there isn't much left of the gatehouse, or any of the cars in the lot. I tried to call for the police, anybody, but they seem to have taken out the phone lines too."

"Jeez, there goes calling the cavalry then." Jack inhaled as if he might actually have considered it.

Mac nodded to Eric. "It's alright, we know what's happening. Just go inside and look after Pete Thornton. He's in the conference room."

Eric tipped his cap, apparently appreciating being sent out of the way. Before anyone could say more, he'd scooted off at breakneck speed.

"Okay, what say we get moving?" Mac raised a brow at his companions, and then turned, already making for the edge of the nearby trees.

"I'd feel a whole lot better if we actually had a plan before we engage the enemy." Jack pointed out as he followed, with Teal'c bringing up the rear.

Mac smiled as he headed deeper into the foliage, stopping ever minute or so to track their invisible foe. "Who says I don't..?" He muttered softly.


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's note: I have no idea why, but part two seemed to format itself in a very weird way! It looked okay in document manager, but had jumbled words together and added italics on the actual site. Apologies! I have now, (hopefully) fixed it. This part did the same, and that is how I noticed. Apologies in advance if I have missed anything! Thanks MJ._

Jack watched as Mac paused and kneeled to scan the ground, Teal'c at his side, apparently doing the same.

He wanted to say something sarcastic, something to break the moment and even maybe break the ice with the other man.

He'd never admit it, of course, but Jack liked this double of his, even if he did have strange ideas about guns and violence.

"How far they get?" O'Neill eventually asked, when nothing more suitable came to mind.

Mac stood up and pointed into the distance, where there were quite obviously several clearings. "It looks like they're heading for the new version of "MacGyverland", even if they don't know it yet."

Jack pulled a face. "MacGyver _what?_ "

"It's a training ground I used to run for the foundation, or at least the old version was. I don't exactly work here anymore."

"And this helps us how, Mr. MacGyver?" Teal'c raised a brow, sombre as ever.

"Firstly, it's Mac…and I think if we can head them off, then maybe we can lure them into a trap. There are a couple of large pits in the ground over there we could maybe use as makeshift jails." MacGyver shielded his eyes from the sun that was filtering through the trees and looked in the direction he'd indicated.

Teal'c cocked his head. "And how do you propose to trick them, Mr. Mac? Jaffa are not easily fooled."

"Oh I'm sure he has something fun and non violent up his sleeve, don'tcha _Mr. Mac?_ " O'Neill teased.

MacGyver didn't rise to the bait. "I was thinking of making a smoke screen, there should be suitable materials over there, it was part of the old exercise. At least, I'm hoping they still use it."

"And then what?" Jack had started walking again, carefully picking his way towards the training ground as they spoke. Time, after all was against them already. And who knew, maybe MacGyver's plan just might work.

"If we can climb a couple of trees, I was thinking of waiting until they were below us and tossing the paint from the cans their way."

O'Neill scowled. "You know, I really was kidding when I said we'd decorate them to death?"

"I believe I understand, O'Neill," Teal'c intervened helpfully. "Mr. Mac plans to use the paint to reveal the Jaffa, even though cloaked."

"Well, maybe," MacGyver admitted. "It depends on how the technology they're using actually works. The paint might just hit the cloak and vanish like everything else. But it's at least worth a shot. And if we can get it over their helmets, we could effectively blind them for a few seconds until they can take the helmet off, even if the paint doesn't fool the cloak itself."

Jack pondered the idea. "So, we basically make smoke, hide up a tree near these pits in the ground, and then throw paint at a technologically superior enemy and hope we can spook him or blind him enough to be able to push him in the pit without actually getting our own asses canned?"

Teal'c nodded. "I believe this is correct, O'Neill."

"It's _nuts_!" Jack was shaking his head, but was still picking his way through the trees. "I mean, c'mon, even I don't come up with plans that crazy!"

"Do we have a choice? Do you have any better ideas?" MacGyver had taken point again and appeared to be maneuvering the group around the Jaffa, and to where he thought their plan would best be executed.

Jack checked his weapon. The thing might not actually be of any use, but the motion somehow felt comforting. "So tell me again, how do we actually know when to toss the paint, if we can't see the bad guys?"

Mac paused, his eyes scouring the vegetation ahead as he spoke in a hushed voice. "We use the smoke and your rifle to our advantage."

Jack looked down at his gun. "I thought you didn't _do_ guns?"

Mac sighed and took the rifle from the colonel's hands, detaching the IR laser sight. "If you think you hear someone approaching, use this," he flashed the beam across his hand. "When the beam is broken through the smoke, you know you're ears aren't playing tricks on you, and you have company."

O'Neill took the sight back and reattached it to his weapon his mind screaming "smartass" but his mouth remaining civil. "What about you? You don't have anything?"

Mac winked. "I'll wing it." He hunkered to the ground again, indicating his two companions do the same. "From the tracks, I think they're just passing Macland. I'm going to skirt around to the left and start up the foundation's auxiliary generators. We'll need them to power the gate anyway, and it should bring your Jaffa in this direction out of curiosity. Then I'll work on the fog."

He took off his pack, retrieved a paint can and handed it to Jack.

"Okay, so where exactly are these pits we're supposed to use?" O'Neill was squinting through the trees, watching for movement, any bush or twig that was jostled that may mean he could get a fix on the Jaffa for himself.

MacGyver was pointing again, this time to two nearby clearings, one to the left, one to the right. "You take the right hand one, I'll go for the left after I'm done with the generators and fog. I figured Teal'c could be our ground man and help get our bad guys into the pits if we can disorientate them enough with the paint on their helmets."

Teal'c nodded. "I will try."

Jack chewed on his lip. "There are a whole lotta ifs in this scenario I really don't like. You better be right about this _Mr. Mac._ " He smiled grimly and began to carefully pick his way through the undergrowth towards the man-made dell where the first pit lay hidden by the treeline.

From the corner of his eye, the colonel saw a glimmer of a smile from his "twin" before MacGyver vanished into the trees on his own personal mission.

Behind, Teal'c followed, his gaze fleeting from side to side, and then to the rear as if he expected the invisible Jaffa to pounce at any second.

As they reached the edge of the glade, Jack held up a hand and dropped to one knee,signaling they should wait.

Teal'c joined the officer. "What is it, O'Neill?"

Jack put a finger to his lips as if they should listen.

There was silence save for the chirping of the odd bird or cricket.

Seconds passed, and for a brief moment O'Neill wondered if MacGyver had been caught by their enemy.

But then it came, the regular burble of a generator kicking it.

The buzz grew louder, and then a second generator fired up, joining the cacophony that shattered the eerie woodland calm.

Jack exhaled. _So far, so good…_

He surveyed the clearing, eyes picking out the somewhat concealed pit and a selection of stumps of varying heights he suspected candidates here would be asked to traverse.

There was a rope too, dangling from one of the trees.

Not perfectly placed, but close enough to the tree he needed to be in to work.

Stuffing the small paint can in his own pack; Jack edged around the glade to the rope and began to shimmy up it, with Teal'c watching on below, his staff ready to defend his friend if the need arose.

As Jack clambered onto a branch he hoped would take his weight, he realized that the earth beneath the tree was already awash with a spooky smog that clung to the ground like something out of a Carpenter movie.

MacGyver had pulled two of his tasks off.

But could he pull a third? Would the laser and paint trick work?

Jack tugged the sight from his rifle and tucked it into a fold on the branch, then using his field issue knife, he popped the top off the paint can.

As he worked, the air around him grew hazier as Mac's fog filtered through the depths of the surrounding trees.

He paused, clicking the radio mike attached to his uniform. "Anything yet, Teal'c?" he almost whispered.

The deep growling tones of his friend's response weren't comforting. "Negative, O'Neill. However, I do not believe I will know they are here in time to warn you."

Jack huffed. "Yeah, that's kinda what I figured."

 _And what if I get all three under this dang tree?_

Lots of different scenarios played through the officer's head, and they all ended badly.

Jack was normally a glass half full kinda guy, but in this situation, he felt like things were taking shape that were totally out of his control, and he didn't like it.

Something snapped slightly to his left and beneath him, and the colonel abandoned his thoughts in favour of listening hard.

Another cracking sound as twigs and undergrowth were pushed aside.

Someone was here.

And he couldn't risk breaking radio silence to check with Teal'c.

Jack reached for the laser sight, his heart suddenly pounding in his chest.

He licked his lips, eyes darting left and right in a vain attempt to get a fix on who was coming, and exactly from which direction.

 _C'mon you goa'uld loving…_

The thin red beam from the laser was suddenly broken and Jack knew he had to act.

Grabbing the open paint can he tossed the contents to the ground below and prayed under his breath to whoever was listening that the glooping liquid made contact with the enemy.

He wasn't disappointed.

Seconds later, O'Neill could just make out the helmet and left shoulder of a Jaffa – all in bright white like the paint he'd thrown.

The goa'uld soldier writhed, his hands clasping at his headdress, not grasping yet why he'd abruptly lost all of his vision.

 _It's working!_

But even as Jack watched, the paint seemed to begin to become translucent. He wasn't the most technically minded of SG-1, but it was obvious even to the colonel that he had very little time before the cloak adapted to the makeup of the paint, and absorbed its presence like everything else.

Jack grabbed at the nearby rope and slid to the ground.

As his boots hit the dirt, the Jaffa finally managed to withdraw his helmet, and he spun in O'Neill's direction.

Jack countered by slamming the butt of his rifle at the Jaffa's chin, and was surprised when it actually made contact.

Was assimilating the paint causing a glitch in the cloak? Or maybe at close quarters the thing wasn't so invincible?

Jack had no idea if he'd found a flaw in the soldier's armour, or if it was malfunctioning, but he was determined to use it to his advantage.

He lashed out again with the rifle, but this time the Jaffa was ready and deflected the blow easily with his forearm.

Jack cringed and spun the weapon around in his hand, hoping bullets would work this close just as well as punches.

The Jaffa was quicker, and grabbing the barrel with his augmented strength, he simply tore it from O'Neill's grasp and tossed it aside.

Jack stepped back, startled from the speed of his opponent's move, but the Jaffa wasn't finished yet. He lunged forwards, his angled features and beady eyes showing annoyance.

With one hand, he grabbed O'Neill by the throat and began to lift him, squeezing his long fingers as he poured on more strength into the move.

Apparently savouring the chance to "play" with his enemy, the Jaffa didn't finish the officer, even though he had the power. Instead, he threw O'Neill sideways into the nearest tree.

Jack hit hard and felt the air knocked from his lungs. Blood dribbled abundantly from his temple where it had impacted with the rough bark, but he knew he had to use this second of freedom to his advantage, or he was as good as dead.

 _And where the hell is Teal'c?_

Jack groaned as he pushed his body up using his arms, and somehow before the Jaffa was able to grab him again, he was able to pull his knife from its sheath.

He couldn't think of any military move he'd ever been taught that would help in this situation, so Jack opted for his own version of a full frontal assault, barrelling into his enemy with every ounce of strength he had left.

Amazingly, it was enough for both men to topple over, a writhing mess of limbs, punching and kicking to gain the upper hand.

Somehow, Jack found himself wrapped around the Jaffa, his head level with the soldier's lower back, and it was then that he realized he was looking at a piece of goa'uld technology he hadn't seen before.

Attached to his attacker's armour was a small, scaly box that glistened with the same cobalt blue Daniel had spoken of.

Taking a chance, O'Neill poured all of his efforts into taking out the cloak, rather than the man.

Yanking his right hand free, he rammed his blade into the cloak's edge, suspecting it would be a weak point.

The box shimmered, sparks of energy cascading over its surface, before it seemed to die completely.

The Jaffa roared with rage, and apparently spurred on by the loss of his protection, he grabbed O'Neill's right arm and twisted it around brutally.

Jack tried to counter, lashing out with his knee in the Jaffa's stomach, but it had little effect.

Instead, the Jaffa snatched O'Neill's knife from his hand and glared at it for a moment.

Then, for the first time, he spoke, his voice low like Teal'c's, but much more rasping. "Feel your own blade as its slices through your flesh, Tauri…"

Jack grimaced, knowing he wasn't going to like what was going to come next, but was powerless to stop it. "Ya know I always wanted a symbiont pouch of my own," he couldn't resist one last quip. One last jibe at his enemy.

The Jaffa seemed to smirk, a rare trait among his kind, for just for the tiniest moment. And then, he brought O'Neill's well honed blade down, slicing into the officer's side and across without even the hint of emotion.

O'Neill yelped, helpless as the Jaffa held him down, intent of finishing his handiwork.

He tried to struggle, to wriggle, to lash out, but as blood ebbed from him onto the forest floor, so did the power to fight back.

 **Phoenix Foundation**

 **Facility 3**

 **Angeles** **Forest**

Sam Carter looked at the stargate and sighed. Back home,dialing out was a simple task, but here the problem over crossing time, dimension, as well as space was baffling her.

Why would an electrical storm send the gate so haywire?

Nothing like this had ever happened before, when logic said it should have by now.

There was something here, some element she just wasn't seeing, and it was way beyond frustrating.

"We can't make this happen, can we?" Daniel Jackson sauntered up to the officer's side and joined her in staring at the gate. "I mean, how do we replicate something we don't even understand?"

Carter shook her head. "The time thing we could maybe try and use sun spots, like we did when we accidentally jumped back to '69. But how do we do that, _and_ find the catalyst that caused the surge to cross a dimension?"

"And we um…kind of need power to do any of those things…" Daniel fiddled with his glasses. "The Jaffa took out the power from the local grid, the computers that make the backup generators kick in, the phone lines, and um…any kind of transport we might have used to get out of here."

Carter had to smile. "You know if Jack were here he'd probably say you were sugar coating things and praise you on your optimism?"

Daniel smiled back. "I doubt he'd put it quite so eloquently, but yeah." He stuffed his hands in his pockets. "So while Jack, Teal'c and MacGyver are out risking life and limb, what do we do? How do we help when we have no answers?"

"How about we start with some power?" Sam and Daniel turned to see the security guard guiding Pete Thornton into the labs. Despite the whole situation he came across as being in an upbeat mood. "The backup generators are online and working. My guess is MacGyver fired them up manually." He explained more helpfully.

Sam bit her bottom lip. "Okay, so let's try hooking this gate up to the DHD and dialing out. Nothing else matters if we can't do that anyway."

Daniel nodded. "Maybe I can find a camera or something we can send through once we've figured this all out to check before we actually try it ourselves? Kind of like an err, impromptu MALP or drone."

"Sounds like a plan," Carter agreed, already walking towards the gate to make a list of requirements to get it online.

Pete smiled again cocking his head in the direction of Jackson's voice. "Young man, I just might be able to help you with that problem…"

 **Phoenix Training Ground**

 **Angeles** **Forest**

Angus MacGyver had to admit that this was probably the most outlandish plan he'd ever come up with. But then, it was also the first time he'd encountered aliens, a gateway to another world, and a doppelganger of himself too, so he guessed he was allowed a little crazy.

The problem was, would "a little crazy" actually work?

Getting the generators going had been a piece of cake, as had the smoke machines.

Fighting a superior alien being with superior technology, with his usual approach of duct tape and safety pin, or in this case good old paint, now that was taking inventive to a whole new level.

Mac tried not to think about the odds of this little strategy going down the way he hoped, because he knew they were low.

No, worse than low, they were positively an abyss.

He pushed the thought from his mind anyway and began to clamber up a tree he'd chosen near "his" pit, his pack still slug over his shoulders.

As he reached a nice little perch, he swung his legs up and hunkered over enough to try and see where O'Neill was across the dell.

The fog, however, had already started to get quite thick amongst the trees that lined the edge of the forest, and all that the troubleshooter could make out was the protruding stumps he'd once used to train staff here.

He exhaled slowly and retrieved the paint from his pack, flicking off the lid with his pocket knife.

He'd expected to wait awhile before getting any company, and was surprised when his ears picked up on the sound of someone approaching almost straight away.

Was it Teal'c or O'Neill?

Had something already gone wrong, or was it the Jaffa they'd hoped to lure here after all?

Mac gulped and let his eyes join in the hunt for movement that his ears had already started.

A bush below suddenly and inexplicably began to shake.

This had to be it!

Using all his strength, he tossed the paint towards the bush in an arc he prayed would give the best coverage.

Instantly, a figure appeared through the smog, and they seemed disorientated, just as Mac had hoped.

Not wanting to give the Jaffa time to withdraw his helmet, Mac swung from the tree like Tarzan, hitting the soldier square in the chest with his momentum.

The Jaffa was tossed backwards and teetered on the edge of the pit.

Mac let go of the branch he'd used to swing down and hit the ground, rolling like a paratrooper into a standing position.

Before his eyes, the Jaffa was melting into the background again, his cloak absorbing the paint's structure.

There was no time to waste.

As the Jaffa's helmet retracted, Mac took a running jump at him, catching the seething alien in the chest with his boots and finally knocking him over the edge.

The Jaffa yelped, either from rage or surprise as he dropped into the crater, but either way, he was trapped.

Mac clambered to his feet and jogged to the edge of the hole, but when he looked down, the Jaffa had already become invisible once again, a slight blue tingling aura the only thing giving away where he stood as it continued to digest the paint.

Mac took a second to catch his breath and then decided he needed to scour the area for something to put over the pit. He didn't think the Jaffa would be able to climb out without help, but then as he himself quite often proved – nothing was ever impossible.

Heading back to the small generator building, he hoped there would be something left from the construction crew that had worked here recently that he might be able to utilize.

Before he had chance to duck inside, however, a bright flash in the sky above the smog made him pause.

From what Mac had witnessed back at the Phoenix facility, it was the discharge of a staff weapon, but was it Teal'c at work, or one of the bad guys?

The flash came again.

Could he risk not going to help his two companions?

Mac decided he couldn't.

Abandoning covering his own pit, he started to jog carefully towards the second, keeping his eyes and ears peeled for the other two Jaffa.

The smoke machine was still hard at work, making it difficult now he was on the ground, but he pushed on, not worrying about his own safety.

The clearing was straight ahead, and through the whirling miasma around him, Mac finally saw the thing he had been dreading.

Jack O'Neill was laying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, with Teal'c hovering over him, looking even grimmer than he had back at the labs.

And the only thing screaming through MacGyver's mind as he approached, his stomach churning, was that this was his dang plan.

 _His fault._


	4. Chapter 4

As MacGyver grew closer, he realized that O'Neill was still conscious and squirming as Teal'c tried to help him.

 _Not dead, thank heavens._

Blood, however, had soaked the whole left side and middle of the colonel's jacket, and that tended not to be a good sign.

Mac had seen some pretty nasty injuries located in that area in Vietnam, and he knew it was very easy for a person's insides to be quickly outside if the wound was deep enough.

Kneeling at Jack's side, he tried not to dwell on those memories as he tugged out his pocket knife and began to carefully cut the material away from the wound.

"Are you trying to finish me off with that thing?" Jack coughed out, still attempting wit. "'cause I really don't think it's big enough…"

Mac let out a breath in relief as he saw what was under Jack's bloodied shirt.

 _Not too bad…_

Ignoring the officer's remarks, he concentrated on what he had to do next.

The cut was deepest on the left side, and he guessed that was where the Jaffa had started his slicing. It gradually petered out across O'Neill's stomach as if the bad guy had been distracted.

Teal'c firing his staff perhaps?

MacGyver didn't waste time asking.

He needed to stop Jack bleeding as soon as possible, and then they could worry about how this had happened. "Teal'c, do you carry a first aid kit of any kind?"

The ex-Jaffa nodded and silently retrieved a small bag from his pack. He offered it up to Mac, who waved him off.

"Find something in there and dry the sides of the wound as much as you can." As MacGyver spoke, he was rummaging in his own backpack. "I know he's still bleeding but do your best."

Teal'c didn't hesitate, swiftly finding a large wound dressing to mop up as best he could.

Jack grimaced as his friend apparently applied just a little too much pressure. "Hey, what is this, a new method of Jaffa torture?" He sputtered blearily.

"I am sorry, O'Neill."

"Yeah, well next time do you think you can maybe come to my rescue before your buddies try to give me a matching pouch?"

Teal'c raised a brow. "I was already engaged in battle with the first prime." He looked almost sorrowful that he'd let his friend get hurt. "If I had not taken him on, he would have joined the Jaffa at your location also…"

Mac watched the exchange as he worked, grateful that Teal'c was keeping O'Neill both awake, and distracted. He doubted the officer was going to like what came next very much.

While Teal'c had dried the sides of the wound to the best of his ability, Mac had been using his pocket knife to cut long, narrow strips of duct tape. Now he had to pull the sides of the cut together and use those strips like giant butterfly clips to hold everything in place.

And it was definitely going to hurt big time.

O'Neill seemed to have sensed Mac's apprehension and stopped chiding Teal'c. He looked up to see the strips of tape, and guessed what was coming next. "You…you gotta be kidding me..?"

Mac ignored the comment and carefully squeezed the cut together where it was deepest, then applied the first strip, followed by the next and the next all the way along, leaving small gaps between each "clip" to allow air to the wound, and any infection that might occur out.

Mercifully for both men, Jack only remained conscious for the first few seconds of Mac's attempt to patch him up.

"Will he recover?" Teal'c watched on both with curiosity and concern, the stoic expression on his face melting just enough for MacGyver to realize that he had very great respect for O'Neill.

And that didn't come lightly from a Jaffa, Mac was sure.

Mac was also pretty certain after his own experience with wounds that Jack would be okay, but he checked for the throb of blood at O'Neill's neck anyway.

Jack's pulse was a little fast, but still reasonably strong and steady.

The gash had bled a lot, but they'd dealt with it pretty quickly.

And the rather garish head wound Jack had also sustained was nowhere near as nasty as it looked. A couple of butterfly clips in that department and the officer would be good as new. Well, apart from a headache the size of Mount Rushmore.

"He'll be okay, but we need to get him back to the foundation labs." Mac finally answered, now focusing on pressing a field dressing over his handiwork and then dealing with the gash over Jack's brow.

The colonel groaned. "I'll be fine, Teal'c, just as long as you keep Rod Stewart and his duct tape from hell away from me…"

Teal'c seemed bemused and relieved. "I do not know this Rod Stewart?"

Jack groaned again, this time not from the pain in his side. "The _mullet,T_ eal'c?"

Teal'c shook his head, but Mac was convinced there was the slightest hint of a smile on his lips. Whether it was because Jack was awake and had enough energy for sarcasm, or whether he really did know who Rod Stewart was, the trouble shooter wasn't sure.

Jack tried to roll onto his good side to pull up into a sitting position, grimaced, and then dropped back down onto his back puffing a little when he realized he didn't have the strength. "So, did you zap the snakehead lover who cut me or what?" He asked Teal'c. "We got at least one of them, right?"

"I did not," Teal'c confessed, his voice getting lower as he seemed to actually feel shame about his lack of victory. "The first prime is stronger than I anticipated. It was all I could do to keep him at bay, O'Neill. When I saw the second Jaffa about to harm you, I could only let off a blast from my staff weapon in his direction, and hope he would be distracted."

"It's a good job he was," Mac cut in. "Because if that wound had been any deeper…"

Jack winced. "I get the picture. I'd be looking at parts of myself from a whole new angle." He looked at MacGyver hopefully. "How 'bout you? You're at least still in one piece. Tell me that means I didn't get sliced and diced for nothing."

"You didn't. I got lucky, I guess. The one I caught is still invisible, though. The paint thing doesn't last."" Mac admitted. "I should go and make sure he's secure while Teal'c gets you back to Phoenix."

Teal'c features grew stoic. "Perhaps I should go and speak with him? I believe I may be able to convince him the goa'uld are not gods, and turn him to our cause. And if not, I stand a much better chance of subduing him than you, Mr. Mac." He cocked his head. "Also…you have much greater medical skill than I, should O'Neill require it."

Jack scowled. "Gee thanks, Teal'c, but I think I'll pass on any more attention today," he moved jut a little, and obviously found it uncomfortable. "What makes you so sure you can sway this guy, anyway?"

"I am not sure, O'Neill. However, as you say, it is not worth a try?"

"He has a point," MacGyver agreed. "Because I've noticed something that we can't ignore. I think the Jaffa cloaking devices maybe directly linked to why you jumped time and realities. The cloak has a strange blue glow, just like Daniel described. If I'm right, we need the Jaffa and their devices intact to recreate the journey through the gate."

O'Neill made a face. "Oops…"

Teal'c blinked. "Oops?"

"I kinda took out the cloaking device of the Jaffa that cut me." O'Neill looked almost apologetic. "It did glow with some freakish blue light."

Mac wasn't swayed. "If we can catch him, maybe we can fix it. Especially if Teal'c can get the one I caught on our side. He might know how the technology works."

Jack wasn't convinced. "Good luck with that."

Teal'c took the statement as a green light and nodded. "I will go now, and if he is amenable, I shall rendezvous with you at the place you call Phoenix." He turned to leave, and then looked back. "We should not waste too much time. The first prime will most likely be angry at our recent actions and seek revenge. I believe he will try and return through the gate for reinforcements."

"Just be careful," both Jack and MacGyver echoed in unison, as if their very thoughts were aligned.

Teal'c nodded again, and then vanished stealthily into the thinning fog towards the captive Jaffa.

"Do you think he can do it?" Mac kneeled at Jack's side and checked the dressing he'd not long applied. Thankfully, it was still dry.

Jack swallowed and blinked for a second as if he needed a moment to clear his thoughts. "If I know, Teal'c, he'll sure as hell try…"

MacGyver offered the colonel a hand up, gently taking his weight and placing Jack's arm over his shoulder.

Jack took a breath and leaned to try and pick up his rifle, still keeping his weight on the other man, but the motion jarred his side and he recoiled.

Mac lifted it up for him and slung it over his own shoulder, even though he had no intention of firing it. "You know, if Teal'c is right, the two Jaffa still out there are going to head right back to the labs to use the gate, and Pete and your friends aren't expecting them."

Jack came to a halt and keyed the mike on his uniform. "Daniel? Carter?" Only static hissed back at him, taunting the officer. "We're out of range to warn them," he sighed. "You better go without me. They need to know what might be heading their way."

Mac shook his head. "I don't leave anyone behind, and I suspect you wouldn't either." He tugged, urging O'Neill to move again.

Jack did, picking up speed ever-so-slightly even though it obviously hurt. "You're a mystery, ya know that, MacGyver? You hate guns, and yet I get the impression you've seen your fair share of action?"

"Enough to know guns aren't the answer." Mac took a stride over a fallen tree branch and urged the colonel to do the same. "There's always an alternative, if you look hard enough."

Jack wasn't won over. "So I'm guessing you've been on the battlefield? What as, a medic?"

That amused Mac. He smiled wanly as they moved back deeper into the forest again. "I was in bomb disposal in 'nam. Let's just say I preferred taking them to pieces rather than the alternative."

Jack nodded as if the revelation explained everything, and then winced as he almost lost his footing. "So, c'mon, you can tell me now. It's just you, me and the trees. Why'd you hate guns so much?"

MacGyver almost stopped dead in his tracks.

 _Almost._

Except he didn't have time to – not while they both had people in danger.

Instead, he pushed on, but his expression said his mind was reliving a moment he'd rather have left buried.

Eventually, he swallowed and decided his alter ego deserved to know why he chose not to use firearms, even again deadly aliens. "There was an accident, back when I was a kid. Me and a bunch of friends were messing around with a gun. We knew better, but it was just supposed to be a game, right up until Jesse got shot…"

"He make it?"

MacGyver stopped walking. All the guilt, all the memories washing over him like it had just that second happened. In his mind, he could still see Jesse bleeding, his eyes pleading to be saved.

And Mac had tried.

God only knew how hard he'd tried.

Mac couldn't look O'Neill in the eye as he answered a simple and very final. "No."

He expected a lecture from the officer at his side – a chewing out for letting one moment define him. But instead, O'Neill had turned a ghostly white and was looking at the ground as if he totally got where MacGyver was coming from.

"I get it," Jack eventually mouthed, his voice cracking with emotion. "You see I lost my son, Charlie, pretty much the same way. It was _my_ weapon. _My_ fault."

He urged Mac to begin walking again, and for a time, they trudged along in silence.

Eventually, Jack's mood changed like he'd flipped a light switch. Mac suspected the jovial façade the officer often wore was sometimes a defence mechanism, and it worked extremely well.

"So, you got kids?" O'Neill gave a quirky smile as he asked. "I mean, is there a mini Mac out there somewhere playing with duct tape as we speak?"

"I have a son." Mac couldn't resist a smile of his own as he brought up an image of Sam in his head. They hadn't known one another all that long, but he was proud of the way his kid had turned out.

"Any other family?"

Mac shook his head. It was getting painful again, but for some reason he couldn't deny giving O'Neill the answers. "My dad and grandma died in a car accident when I was eleven. Mom later…"

"I'm sorry," Jack offered genuinely. "I guess its hard telling me all this stuff, huh? I mean, me being you and all. Well, kinda…"

Mac was surprised to hear Jack admit they might be one and the same, and he was tempted, just for a second, to shoot some teasing remark of his own to lighten the mood.

It had been a pretty intense afternoon, after all, but then, it wasn't over yet.

A voice, booming from somewhere ahead stopped any moment of mirth.

It was the first prime, and he was more than a little ticked.

Mac and O'Neill picked up the pace again until they reached the edge of the trees where they'd originally entered the forest.

Finding a good spot with plenty of cover, Mac propped the colonel against a tree and then dared to take a peek at what was going on.

The first prime and the de-cloaked Jaffa were standing in front of the open massive lab door, and on the ground in front of them, hands tied behind their backs was Pete, the security guard, Daniel, and Sam.

"Give yourselves up, Tau'ri, or see your friends die at my hand!"

Mac didn't really understand the whole goa'uld and Jaff athing, but he could tell in an instant the first prime meant it.

The lead Jaffa kicked Daniel to make a point, and the scientist grunted.

"Great, now what do we do?" O'Neill looked tired and very frustrated. "I should probably tell you, I'm really not in good enough shape for a full frontal assault."

Mac was thinking, those famous inner cogs of his mind spinning at super-speed. "Maybe if Teal'c can convince the other Jaffa to help we'd stand a chance…"

"Sadly, that was not possible."

MacGyver and Jack followed the sound of the voice to see Teal'c looking almost sulkily back at them. His bottom lip seemed even more curled than usual.

"I was not able to turn the Jaffa to our cause, so I secured him in the pit and returned." Teal'c nodded towards the still shouting first prime. "I do not believe in our current situation we can take him without significant losses to our people."

"I agree." Mac nodded, his mind still racing, calculating, and evaluating every option.

"Well we can't just sit and let this guy hurt our friends." Jack took his sidearm out and pushed in a fresh clip.

Mac licked his lips. "No we can't. That's why it's time to surrender…"


	5. Chapter 5

Jack did a double take. "Say _what?_ "

"If we can't beat them, then we join them," Mac offered somewhat cryptically.

Teal'c cocked his head. "I do not believe I understand."

"Fighting isn't always the best way to win in a situation." MacGyver was going through his pack, checking out what items he had on him. "Remember when I said earlier I thought the bad guys' cloaks caused the anomaly that brought you here? Well, I still believe it. And if you're their prisoners, what are they most likely to do?"

Oh, I dunno, kill us maybe?" Jack offered, the usual air of irony in his voice.

"I believe the first prime would take us back through the gate as trophies for his master," Teal'c suggested.

Mac nodded almost excitedly. For the first time in hours he felt like he might have a solution to this mess. "Exactly, they take you back through the gate and as they have the cloaks, hopefully back to your own time and dimension!"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Jack sounded weary. "We might go back to our own time and universe, but they'd also be taking us back to a planet full of Jaffa who'd like nothing better than to can our butts!"

"That's where I come in," Mac explained. "They probably don't know about me. They didn't see me in the labs, and I'm pretty sure they haven't gotten a look at me out here. So, while you're busy surrendering, I'll be busy rewiring the DHD."

This seemed to catch Teal'c's interest. He raised a brow. "I believe I understand. You will attempt to cold wire the dialling device. When the Jaffa dial PX97-554 they will actually be dialling the earth gate…"

Jack winced. "That would be _hot wire_ , Teal'c. And it doesn't quite work that way…"

Mac butted in. "I think he gets my meaning. Can you talk me through what I need to do to make it happen?"

Teal'c considered it, and then nodded sagely. "Indeed I can, but it is not an easy task."

O'Neill coughed. "Ahem, aren't you two forgetting something? Even if this whacko plan works, those guys aren't going to leave your friend Pete and the security guy behind. They'll get stuck in another dimension with us. And, what about the small fact that I disabled one of those cloaks? Won't that change the whole effect they have?"

"I had not considered this," Teal'c admitted.

Mac continued sifting through his bag. "I had," he sighed. "And the simple fact of the matter is that I don't know if losing one of the cloaks will change anything. But I also don't see another option. If it works, you'll walk right into your own people the other side the stargate, and I was kinda hoping they'd be able to disarm the bad guys and then send Pete and Eric back by jury rigging the cloaking technology."

Jack shook his head. "I gotta admit, I've never met anyone quite like you before." He smiled wanly. "You're completely mad, but I guess you're my kind of mad."

Mac smiled back and pulled out a roll of duct tape. He offered it up to the colonel. "If this works, I probably won't see you again. Consider it a leaving present."

Jack grimaced and touched his side as if he'd never quite forget the stuff, but he took it anyway. "All I'm gonna say is, if you're as good at rewiring a DHD as you are at patching someone up then we're in real trouble…"

MacGyver's eyes sparkled with amusement, but he didn't answer. Instead he focused on Teal'c. "Okay, tell me as much as you can about the dialler and which symbols I need to redirect."

Teal'c nodded. "I will do my best."

Samantha Carter really didn't like eating dirt.

And right now, laying flat on her stomach, hands tied behind her back, that was pretty much all she could do.

She had a bad feeling she'd be this way a lot longer, too, if the first prime had anything to do with it.

Sam had overheard him talking earlier about his plans to take them back and offer them up to his master. And she had visions of remaining trussed up like a chicken all the way back to PX97-554.

Of course, Jack, Teal'c, and the new guy MacGyver were still out there somewhere.

At least, she hoped they were.

One of the Jaffa had not returned, and one had come back minus his sparkly blue cloak, so the colonel and his cohorts had been up to something.

The question was, had they gone for reinforcements, or would they mount a rescue mission?

She guessed the first prime behind her was hoping for neither.

He'd been screaming for the Tau'ri to surrender for the past half an hour, and Sam was getting worried if something didn't happen soon he might get violent.

She wasn't afraid for herself, but for the rather portly man named Pete. He was blind, and goa'uld and their Jaffa tended to usually pick on the weak.

Then there was Eric the guard. How on earth he'd gotten a job in security, she would never know. He was just too jittery.

As if to almost confirm her suspicions, the first prime leaned down low, as if he was scenting his foe. He moved back and forth across them, choosing.

And then he grabbed Pete by the collar, tugging him roughly into a standing position.

Pete coughed at being so roughly and unexpectedly handled, but to his credit, he didn't cry out are plead for mercy.

"This is your last chance!" The Jaffa boomed. "Reveal yourselves, or I will tear this one limb from limb with my bear hands!" He shook Pete like a dog would shake a toy. "Well, Tau'ri, what is it to be..?"

"Alright, alright, keep your hair on, missy." Jack O'Neill moved slowly from his cover, both hands raised.

Behind him, Teal'c followed.

From her position, Carter could barely see what was happening, but MacGyver appeared to be missing from the trio, and it looked like the colonel had been hurt from the dried blood on his jacket.

 _Is MacGyver hurt? Or worse..?_

Despite only knowing the man for a few hours, Sam realized either thought was quite painful. It was like it was Jack it had happened to.

"Throw down your weapons or be destroyed!" The first prime was laying down the orders, and callously let Pete drop to the floor now his usefulness was over.

The Jaffa at his side now pointed his staff weapon at the yielding duo.

Jack tossed down both his sidearm, and his MP5, Teal'c did the same with his staff.

As soon as they grew close enough, the Jaffa moved towards them, urging them to drop down onto their knees, hands behind their heads.

"Where is my second Jaffa?" The first demanded. "For your sakes, I hope he is not dead?"

"He is not," Teal'c confirmed. "In fact, he is merely incarcerated in a small pit in the ground of the training area…"

"Training area?" The first prime looked like he would slap Teal'c until his companion stepped in.

"It is where I was ambushed," the Jaffa offered subserviently.

"Go, retrieve him." The leader snapped. "I shall watch over the Tau'ri until you return."

The Jaffa bowed his head and jogged off towards MacGyverland.

Jack took the opportunity for a little banter. "Ya know, while he's gone, you might wanna be figuring out how to fix that cloak of his?"

"Silence!" The first glowered. "You dare to speak to me?" He kicked out, catching Jack on the side where he'd been injured.

The colonel took in a sharp breath and closed his eyes momentarily before retorting, "Yeah, I dare speak to you. And if you listen I might just save all our asses. In case you hadn't noticed, we're not exactly in our own dimension. Those cloaks you wear are the key to that. And if one isn't working, you just might not get back to where you started from."

"You lie. You try to trick us!"

Jack shrugged, or at least tried from his position on the ground. "C'mon, think about it. You know I'm right!"

The Jaffa turned away from the group for a second, as if he didn't want them to see his expression while he pondered. When he turned back, he moved away just far enough to still be able to cover them with his staff, while he removed his own cloaking device and began to examine it.

Carter watched him for a short time, then carefully turned her attention to the colonel. "Sir, is this true?" she whispered. "And if so, why tell them? Once they have it fixed they'll take us straight back to their system lord for punishment."

O'Neill grinned. "That's what I'm counting on. Well, actually, that's what MacGyver's counting on. I'm just along for the ride."

Carter's brow furrowed. "With all due respect, Sir, I don't understand? And where is MacGyver?"

"The Jaffa did not see him. Therefore he did not need to surrender with O'Neill and I. At this moment, he is attempting to reconfigure the gate DHD as per my instructions." Teal'c tried to whisper, but his deep voice wasn't very accommodating.

Sam couldn't contain her in disbelief. "He's what?"

"I have no idea _what_ he's doing," Jack looked over at the first, but he was still fiddling with the cloak. "What I do know, is when he's done it, these guys will dial PX97-554 to take us to their leader, and what they're actually gonna get is close up and personal with the SGC. At least we hope that's what's gonna happen…"

Sam thought about it. Rewiring the DHD to different symbols was theoretically possible, especially with Teal's knowledge. But could a man who had no experience with the technology actually pull it off?

And what about the cloaks?

Were they really the cause of the gate malfunction? Thinking about it, it made more sense than the storm having affected the stargate. And the blue hue from the cloak did match what Daniel had seen on the DHD. "So we need to actually help them fix a cloak or we won't get the power surge at the correct level to cause the inter universal bridge and time jump?"

"If that means we need all three cloaks to get home," Jack questioned. "Then yeah. So if Jaffa boy over there can't fix his buddy's toy, then we may need to help him."

The prime appeared to have finally noticed their banter and stormed over, cloak in one hand, staff in the other. "You will be silent, or I will merely take your bodies back as trophies."

"Can you fix it?" Carter dared to ask anyway. "I mean, maybe we can help."

The prime snorted. "I do not need the help of the Tau'ri. I have already mastered the problem." He pointed to his own cloak triumphantly. "These cannot be repaired, but, I can increase the power of the two remaining cloaks to match the output of the original three. When my Jaffa return, you shall bow to my lord and god on PX97-554!"

"Sounds like fun," Jack grinned cheekily. "Do you think he'll throw us a party?"

The remark earned him another kick to his already bleeding wound.

Inside the labs, MacGyver could hear O'Neill and the others and had to smile at their ingenuity in getting the first prime to inadvertently help them get the dimension jump right.

Of course, none of that mattered if he didn't pull of his part. He'd easily gotten the side panel of the DHD off – he'd remembered that much from Giza.

Once inside, the technology he was dealing with was a whole different ball game, though. Without Teal'c's help, he wouldn't have stood a chance of rewiring the device. Even now, he was actually scared at the thought of what he was trying to do.

When his own life was on the line and he pulled off one of his tricks, that was one thing. But a whole bunch of people were relying on him right now, including Pete.

Mac tried not to let the thought cloud his mind as he pulled out a very alien looking circuit board and began to trace the tracks on it that were the different paths to the DHD buttons.

Once he was sure which ones he needed to reroute, he took a glance over his shoulder to make sure the Jaffa was still outside, and then jogged over to a lab workbench. There was burner there, but no soldering iron.

He thought about it.

It was crude, but he could probably heat up a tool on his knife with the burner to try and melt some solder on the board in the right places. It wasn't going to be easy without a continuous current to heat the tool, so he was going to have to be fast, and very accurate.

If he messed up the circuit board, there was no chance of a replacement.

Tentatively, he began to work, all the while listening to the voices outside to try and give him an idea of how much time he had left.

He'd made it to the last solder joint he needed to make, when the two Jaffa returned from the woods.

Mac grimaced, finished up as best he could and jogged back to the DHD.

The soldiers were dragging his friends to their feet one by one and pushing them towards the huge hanger door. Within seconds the group would be inside, and he would need to be finished and in hiding for any of them to escape.

Mac pushed in the circuit, wishing there was some way to test it. It snagged momentarily as one of his impromptu solder seams caught as he slid it home, and he felt his heart skip.

Then it was in, and he was closing the side to hide any evidence of his work.

There was a crate nearby that O'Neill had used for cover earlier, and Mac ducked behind it just as the first prime and his Jaffa brought in their prisoners.

It was time to watch them leave, not knowing if he was sending them all, including Pete and Eric, to their deaths.

The Jaffa herded there prisoners into the lab, roughly pushing them forwards all the time until they stood before the gate. Everyone still had their hands tied, this time in front of them.

The first prime took a look at his prizes and smirked, his eyes almost glowing as much as if he were a goa'uld. "It is time! Dial the planet!"

The Jaffa O'Neill had fought stepped forwards and began punching in the symbols for PX97-554. The DHD responded, hesitating only once when the last symbol was input.

Mac held his breath, and then suddenly there was a whoosh, and an out rush of air as a wormhole was established.

A wormhole to where, was the only problem.

The first prime suspected nothing, and stepped happily into the rippling tide that would either carry him home, or to the SGC. Then the two Jaffa began to prod their captives with their staffs, urging them to move into the vortex.

Daniel and Carter went first, followed by Pete and Eric.

O'Neill and Teal'c were next up, but just before he stepped into the whirlpool, Jack turned to face the room, just for a split second and smiled.

Mac knew the expression was a silent thank you he could never answer.

And then Jack, and everyone else was gone, vanished into the stone ring like they had never existed.

The wormhole closed and suddenly this little part of the Phoenix Foundation seemed a whole lot smaller.

Mac walked up to the gate and put his hand on it, still momentarily feeling the vibrations from its recent activity. "Godspeed, folks," he whispered, and then slumped down beside the now sleeping device.

He would wait here now, hoping against hope that at some point, Pete and Eric would return, safe and alive.

 ** _The Gate Room_**

 ** _SGC_**

 ** _1999_**

Klaxons screamed and soldiers ran to their positions in front of the gate, as the huge circle began to spin, locking on to chevron after chevron as someone attempted to dial in.

An extra tough iris closed over the center of the alien device, effectively shutting off access to earth.

In the control room above, a sergeant at the main console looked to his superior. "I'm getting SG-1's access code, General Hammond."

Hammond nodded. "Open the iris."

The metal shutter opened back out, and a wormhole gushed from the stargate, spilling into the gate room.

Seconds later, several figures emerged, and not exactly the group Hammond had been expecting. The first man through was dressed as a lead Jaffa, and instantly acted accordingly.

He moved to quickly fire his staff weapon at the awaiting soldiers, even managing to blast a hole into the far gate room wall before being overpowered and tussled to the floor.

The remaining two Jaffa were less hostile once they realized they were not on their home planet, and there was little chance of escape.

The first tossed down his staff the moment he exited the gate. The second pondered a second, weapon in hand, staring at his foes and their MP5's and M16's. Eventually, he too gave in to the inevitable.

Teal'c bowed his head to them. "You have made the correct choice. There would have been little point in dying here."

Neither Jaffa responded as they were lead away, but the first prime could be heard screaming all the way to his holding cell.

"Jeez, I don't think he likes us very much," Jack said wryly as a soldier cut his bonds. "Guess we're off his Christmas list." He moved to walk down the ramp then paused and winced, his hand moving to his side where the Jaffa had kicked him. It came away bloody.

"Are you alright, Sir?" Carter's brow furrowed and she moved to help once her own hands had been untied.

"Nope," Jack confessed. "I think I bust my duct tape…"

 ** _24 Hours Later…_**

Sam Carter knocked on the open door of Jack O'Neill's quarters and then entered without waiting for a response.

The colonel was sitting at his desk, one hand rubbing his left brow as if he had a headache. He looked up as the major walked up to join him.

"Excuse me, Sir, but we're ready in the gate room." Sam looked expectantly at Jack and then paused when he didn't immediately move. "Is everything okay, Sir? I mean, I didn't really expect you to be out of the infirmary so soon…"

"I'm fine." Jack rubbed at his brow again. Something was definitely bothering him, but it wasn't the huge amount of sutures Fraiser had put in his side. It was something no doctor could fix.

"Colonel…I don't mean to pry, but something is clearly bothering you, and if it's not your injury then?" Sam's eyes shone with concern, and Jack knew if anyone was going to pry this out of him, it would be her.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, sighed, and then tapped at a closed manila file on his desk. "When I escaped the doc's torture chamber this morning, I decided to do a little digging. MacGyver and I got to talking while we were in the woods, and he told me a little about his family. Seems his dad and grandma were killed in a car accident when he was a kid and his mom and grandpa brought him up. At least until his mom died later on."

"And?" The major prodded, obviously intrigued.

Jack opened the folder and pushed it over to where Carter was standing. "I wasn't born in Chicago after all. My parents were from Minnesota all along. When my whole family died in a car accident and I was left alone, I was put up for adoption…"

Sam read through the file a little way. Jack O'Neill had been born in Mission City, Minnesota to parents Ellen and James MacGyver. And he had been christened one Angus MacGyver – his name had only changed once his new parents from Chicago had adopted him, and he'd taken their family name, along with a new forename.

"I guess they didn't like the name Angus anymore than I do, huh?" Jack said ironically.

Sam bit her bottom lip. "So you two really were, I mean _are_ the same person, except that in this dimension the accident happened when you were younger, and took all your family, not just your dad and grandma?"

Jack nodded, for once no mirth in his voice. "Sure looks that way. I guess I got the bum deal."

Sam cocked her head in surprise. "Why would you say that, Sir? You got a stable family life as a kid, a career, friends?"

Jack inhaled. "Maybe, but when I looked into his eyes, into his soul, he's the better man, Carter. He doesn't need guns or bombs or staff weapons to solve problems. Heck, he saved me with a piece of duct tape and all of SG-1 by rewiring that DHD. And all without a weapon save for that knife of his."

Sam shrugged. "That doesn't make you any less of a person, Sir. You just do things differently. I know you, and you have just as much heart and soul as he does. You fight for what you believe in, and that's important, Sir. If you could ask Mac, he'd tell you so."

Jack smiled, apparently jarred from his gloomy mood. "I knew there was a reason I liked you, Carter," he teased, rising from his seat. "C'mon, let's go see some people safely home."

Sam nodded and they both headed out for the gate room.

Pete Thornton and Eric the guard where waiting on the ramp in the gate room when Sam and Jack arrived. Daniel and Teal'c were close by, along with General Hammond.

There was a MALP also sitting on the ramp, ready to roll.

Jack nodded to Hammond as he entered and then joined the group.

"Ready to go home, people?" O'Neill noted Thornton looked a little apprehensive, but then who wouldn't, when you were about to step into an alien created wormhole with a piece of jury-rigged technology Carter had been up all night creating from the Jaffa shields?

Not to mention, poor Thornton couldn't even see what a stargate or wormhole looked like.

"I guess we're ready to try," Pete acknowledged. "Just don't expect me to enjoy it."

Jack patted him gently on the back. "You'll be fine. Just look after that gung-ho, duct tape loving friend of yours for me, will ya?"

Pete smiled. "More like he'll look after me. That's what Mac does, looks after everyone else."

"Yeah, I kinda noticed," Jack conceded. "Will you tell him something from me? Tell him…" There was a long pause, because Jack really didn't know how to put into words how he felt, or what he wanted to say. In the end, he just added, "Tell him thanks, he'll understand."

Pete nodded as if he understood too. "I'll tell him." He turned to Eric and tugged on the man's arm. "Ready to go?"

Eric shivered. "I…um…no," he admitted. "But I guess I have to anyway, huh?"

"Don't worry," this time it was General Hammond who spoke. "We're sending a MALP along with you all the way. We can track you, and even talk to you once you're through for at least as long as the wormhole is active."

"That's right," Sam agreed. "If anything should go wrong and you didn't land in the right place, we can track you and hopefully try again."

Jack pulled a face as if to say "what the heck are you freaking them like that for?" "But it's not going to go wrong," the colonel soothed. "Is it, Carter?"

Sam smiled. "No, Sir."

Jack rubbed his hands together. "Okay, let's get these folks home for supper!"

Hammond turned and nodded to the staff in the control room and the iris covering the gate spun open. One by one, the chevrons spun into place and locked, and the wormhole whooshed into existence.

Pete and Eric stepped back in surprise and alarm until it settled back, then Pete licked his lips. "Let's do this, Eric." He pulled on the guard's arm until the terrified man yielded and stepped forward, stopping only when he reached the bristling stream of energy.

Hammond gestured again, and the MALP vanished. They waited seconds, hoping it would send back pictures and sound before the two travellers had to step into the wormhole.

And then, in the control room, the staff at their consoles were suddenly greeted with the smiling, waving face of Angus MacGyver.

When Pete heard the cheers, he didn't wait for confirmation, but simply smiled and stepped forwards, dragging Eric with him.

He didn't want to keep an old friend waiting any longer.

Jack watched as Pete and Eric disappeared and then jogged up to the control room to see the feed the MALP was sending back.

Daniel, Teal'c, Carter and Hammond all joined him, eager to know they had their happy ending.

They needn't have worried.

Mac was giving Pete Thornton a bear hug, and Eric had crumpled into a quivering heap on one of the lab chairs.

When MacGyver finally appeared to remember they had an audience, he moved back to the camera on the MALP.

And as his alter ego looked back at him, for once, Jack O'Neill found he was speechless. "I err…"

MacGyver waited, and somehow seemed to know what the colonel was thinking, even though they were so many, many miles apart. "You're a good man, Colonel, don't ever let anyone tell you any different. It was an honor to meet you."

And with that he snapped Jack a salute and held it.

Jack grinned. Maybe they really were the same person.

The colonel shot a salute back, and behind him, gradually every other person in the room did the same.

As if to break the surreal moment, the wormhole began to sputter and flicker and then with a gigantic pop, it was gone. The connection to the past and another dimension, gone along with it.

Sam glanced at the Colonel. "I guess that's the last time we'll see MacGyver, Sir. _Unless…_ "

"Unless _what_?" Jack suspected he wasn't going to like what came next.

Teal'c even smiled wryly and offered, "Unless we begin to call you Angus, instead of O'Neill."

Daniel snickered. "Maybe we could um, even buy you a pocket knife?"

Jack scowled as if he was going to bite someone's head off. "Don't _even think_ about it, kids, not if you don't want to face a court martial," he barked.

But as he turned away, hands behind his back, O'Neill was grinning broadly and thinking about the thousand and one uses he might actually have for his roll of duct tape.

The End


End file.
